7 October 2008, press release
Reportage Festival, Australia’s premiere showcase of photojournalism, opens this Wednesday 8 October with a cinematic showcase of photo essays by 21 local and international photojournalists including Pulitzer Prize-Winning photojournalist John Moore.
John Moore is in Sydney today, ahead of Wednesday’s opening night and Saturday’s seminar on ‘Life & Death in the Hot Zone’, to discuss the power images have over our lives. Moore has spent the past six years covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and recently made headlines for his exclusive coverage of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.
Now in it’s eighth year, reportage festival 08 runs from Wednesday 8 to Sunday 26 October and includes the famous projections as the Chauvel Cinema as well as a ‘Human Figure’ exhibition by Italian photographer Giorgia Fiorio at the Australian Centre of Photography, a specially curated documentary film program at the Chauvel Cinema and seminars and special guest talks at the ACP (full details below).
Acclaimed Australian photographer Stephen Dupont, is guest curator of reportage festival 08 and along with Alasdair Foster, Director of Australian Centre of Photography, Mike Bowers, Managing Photographic Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald and Johnny Lewis, Photographer, Dupont selected work ranging from Cambodian gangs to Japanese Manga and prostitution in Tijuana, in addition to photo-stories from around the world including West Papua, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and China to feature in reportage festival 08. The full list of featured photographers in the projections include; James Brickwood (oculi.com.au), Seamus Murphy (VII Photo Agency), James Whitlow Delano, Janie Barret (Sun Herald), Andrew Quilty (Fairfax, oculi.com.au), Ben Bohane (degreesouth.com), Palani Mohan (Getty Images), Tim Clayton, Tamara Volinski (oculi.com.au), Tom Williams, Georgia Metaxas, Matthew Abbott, John Moore (Getty), Sean Hobbs, Alixandra Fazzina (trolleyarchive.com), Renee Nowytarger (The Australian), Lisa Wiltse, Craig Golding, Paul Jones, Stefano di Luigi (VII Photo Agency), Dean Sewell (oculi.com.au), Lisa Hogben.
Reportage Festival to become a biennial showcase of photojournalism
Friday 19 October 2007
The organisers of Reportage announced today their intention to trial the popular showcase of photojournalism as a biennial event, with the next festival to be held in August 2008.
Since its inception 1999, Reportage has grown to become the highly anticipated public event that it is today. Reportage has increased interest in, and understanding of, photojournalism as an exciting visual medium among the general public, the media, and many public institutions and galleries.
With seasons held in Sydney, Melbourne and, most recently, Brisbane, Reportage is widely recognised as being the premier showcase for photojournalism by local and international photographers in this country.
While enjoying considerable growth over the years, Reportage has remained true to its grassroots philosophy: to bring outstanding photo essays to the big screen for public consumption; important and compelling visual narratives that, for the most part, remain unseen in their entirety due to the paucity of forums for such work.
The decision to make the event biennial was based on firm belief that Reportage should continue to showcase the best photo essays from Australian and international photographers, rather than 'best of' images from major news stories in the preceeding year.
The organisers believe that this timeframe will provide photographers with a greater opportunity to submit sustained bodies of work to the festival, photo essays that often require a significant amount of preparation, planning and travel to execute.
Additionally, the extended timeframe will allow Reportage to further establish itself as the peak festival of photojournalism in the Asia-Pacific region. The festival will also seek to include more internatlonal photographers in the programme.
Reportage remains committed to its philosophy of showcasing the very best that photojournalism has to offer in a unique and accessible environment.
Entries for Reportage 2008 will be called for later in the year. Check the website www.reportage.com.au for regular updates.
